Britain’s education secretary and Labour deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has criticised the treatment of Russell Brand’s victims during his trial, saying she was shocked by courtroom arguments she had thought belonged to the past.

The Guardian’s Jessica Elgot reported that Powell made the comments after Brand was sentenced on Monday to 10-and-a-half years in prison for raping a woman and sexually assaulting three others.

Speaking to LBC, Powell was asked about defence barrister Ian Winter KC’s suggestion that Brand must be innocent because the women had not “resisted or screamed or even tried to leave”.

“I found reading some of that incredibly sort of depressing,” Powell said. “I thought we’d long gone past that sort of culture and that phase of things.”

Powell praised the sentencing remarks of Mr Justice Bennathan, who said the women had suffered further because of the conduct of the case “on your instructions”, addressing Brand.

“Whatever women wear, wherever they go, whatever they drink, they retain the right to say no and demand justice in the criminal courts,” the judge said.

Powell said the government had taken steps through guidance to challenge rape myths and victim-blaming, but that the trial showed more work was needed.

She also expressed regret over helping arrange an interview between then-Labour leader Ed Miliband and Brand in 2015, when she was the party’s campaign chief.

Speaking to Sky News, Powell said she had not understood the full extent of Brand’s sexual conduct already described publicly. Had those involved known he was a sexual predator, she said, they would not have promoted him. She noted that institutions including Hollywood and the BBC had also given him a powerful platform.

Sources